The Fool And Buttercup

An interesting quote from Mojave Crossing by Louis L’Amour, "It never does any good for a man to cuss himself, unless maybe it helps to impress on his mind what a fool he’s been, but right then and there I did a fair to middling job of cussing myself out for seven kinds of a fool.”

What are the seven kinds of being a fool? Certainly, I feel like a fool for believing it was safe to apply for government loans. It becomes a fool’s errand to believe the government has the knowledge and wisdom to determine which businesses are essential while usurping the rights of others and using the force of law to precipitate the greatest economic disaster in modern history. The Covid pandemic affected everyone. I was the fool. I drank the elixir, a lot of it, and I’m paying my debt to society.

My concern is not the economic disparity of one citizen over another, for someone will always have more money or less money than another citizen. It will never be equal, and that is the reality of life. You can choose what you make and don’t make. Yes, I realize not all people can provide for themselves. I geared this conversation towards those who can. Most people have heard, “Hard work is the path to financial freedom and success.” Generally, this means trading your time for money. There are a few who take the risk of building a business and investing wisely to make their money multiply, who put away something for a rainy day, who live within their means, who forsake instant gratification, and who protect against loss of wealth. These are the people who shape society and provide jobs for many of us. A reasonable person will agree that being gainfully employed or having the ability to generate income is paramount.

Other fools I thought of are: the fool with one-sided love; the fool to power; the fool living in the shadow of someone else; the fool devoted to a career or job at the exclusion of all else; the fool living vicariously through their children; the fool with a shallow spirituality, if that’s the case, be an atheist, it’ll make your life easier; the fool trying to please their parents instead of living their own life; and the most grievous of all, the fool who believes that life should be fair, it isn’t - never rest on your laurels.

I actively strive to maintain a positive attitude and subdue my feelings of bitterness that consume my mind. Little by little I trudge through this minefield of emotional destruction, and thankfully, I find myself more at ease, contemplative, accepting of circumstance, building better relationships, and slowly but surely overcoming it. I am not an athlete, but I’d rather run a marathon than deal with this emotional baggage. Being a responsible adult, I am dealing with my emotional baggage and the consequences of my decisions. Someone famously said, “Suck it up, buttercup.”